Marquis beats Cards again

April 28, 2007

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Jason Marquis beat his old team for the second straight time and Felix Pie hit his first career home run in the Chicago Cubs' 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night. Pie and Aramis Ramirez hit two-run homers in the fourth inning for the Cubs, who have won consecutive games for the first time since April 6-7. Left fielder Alfonso Soriano threw out two runners, one at the plate, and was 1-for-5 with two strikeouts. Marquis (3-1) led the NL with 16 losses to go with a 6.02 ERA last year, didn't pitch in the postseason and wasn't even on the Cardinals' roster for the NLCS and World Series. He allowed three runs and five hits in 6?254-240? innings, six days after throwing seven scoreless innings in Chicago. Anthony Reyes (0-4) struck out five in the first three innings and didn't give up a hit. But the Cubs broke through for four extra-base hits in the fourth, including two-run homers by Ramirez and Pie, to take a 4-1 lead. Before Friday, all 10 runs that Reyes had allowed in his first three starts came in the first two innings. In six innings against Chicago, he allowed four runs and four hits. Yadier Molina hit a two-run homer with two outs in the seventh to chase Marquis and cut the deficit to one. It was his first long ball since his go-ahead two-run homer in Game 7 of the NL championship series against the Mets. Ryan Dempster got the last five outs for his fourth save in four chances and first since April 7. He escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth, striking out Preston Wilson and getting Adam Kennedy on a groundout. Wilson broke his bat on the plate in disgust. Cesar Izturis added an RBI single in the ninth off Cardinals reliever Randy Flores. Derrek Lee led off the fourth with a double when left fielder Chris Duncan barely missed a spectacular diving catch, the ball popping free when he landed. Ramirez followed with his fifth homer. With two outs, Mark DeRosa doubled and scored on Pie's homer to straightaway center for a 4-1 lead. The Cardinals had taken the lead in the third on Scott Rolen's two-out RBI single off the base of the left-field wall.